White woman calls police on African-American political canvasser in gated Lancaster County community

"You don't belong here.'"

As the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania, Marie Cusick covers energy and environmental issues for public radio stations statewide. She’s also part of NPR’s energy and environment team, which coordinates coverage between the network and select member station reporters around the country. Her work frequently airs on NPR shows including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Since 2012, Marie has closely followed the political, social, environmental, and economic effects of Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom. Her work has been recognized at the regional and national levels– honors include a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists and a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Previously, Marie was a multimedia reporter for WMHT in Albany, New York and covered technology for the station’s statewide public affairs TV show, New York NOW. In 2018, she became StateImpact’s first FAA-licensed drone pilot.

(Lancaster) — A black woman canvassing for Democratic congressional candidate Jess King is detailing an incident where police were called on her in a gated Lancaster County community.

Dr. Amanda Kemp, a racial justice/mindfulness mentor and visiting scholar at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, says she and her husband, who is white, were allowed entry to Bent Creek in Manheim Township Sunday afternoon after giving the name of a voter they planned to visit.

But after they started knocking on other doors, Bent Creek resident Elizabeth “Duffy” Johnson told them they didn’t belong — saying Bent Creek was private property — and called police.

They left, but after they returned home, a police officer showed up and spoke to Kemp’s husband.

Kemp wrote a post titled, #Canvassingwhileblack on Facebook and says she is always aware of being a black woman, when moving in predominantly white places.

“The unequal power we had in that situation was very apparent to me,” said Kemp. “Canvassing while black refers to all that anxiety I bring to an interaction, combined with having to face people’s expressed hostility and outright rage, and her saying, ‘You don’t belong here.'”

Johnson is a member of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County and has been campaigning for Lloyd Smucker, the GOP incumbent King is challenging in the 11th district. She also teaches dining, social, and personal skills for the Etiquette School of Central PA. A woman answering the school’s phone Monday afternoon said she could take a message for Johnson but hung up when she was asked to identify herself.

Johnson’s attorney Edwin Pfursich said in statement Tuesday that the story being portrayed on social media is not accurate.

“This matter is about trespassing. The volunteers from Jess King’s campaign entered private property and became aggressive,” he wrote in an email. “They were asked to leave and refused, so the police were notified.”

Neither Kemp nor her husband could say for sure why the situation unfolded as it did, but Kemp noted implicit bias is real, and it is a mistake to simply define racism as someone yelling the n-word.